Pruning the Family Tree
by Gryffindor010697
Summary: Five short stories about a couple of the burn marks on the Black family tapestry.


**August 2, 1869**

Ella Max Black sipped her sherry from her seat in the parlor of 12 Grimmauld Place. She sat in a claw foot lounging chair and stared at the tapestry that her husband, Cygnus, had put up when they had their first child. She stared at the names. Phineas Nigellus Black. Sirius Black. Elladora Black. Isla Black.

Ella scoffed at the last name, her youngest daughter. Ella put her glass up to her lips and found it empty. Suddenly filled with rage, she threw the crystalline glass at the wall, shattering it into millions of pieces. But this was not enough. She grasped her wand on the table and strode over to the tapestry. She reached the wall and put her wand on her daughter's face. _"Incendio!_ " Yes. That felt better. It was as if she never existed.

 **December 24, 1908**

Phineas Nigellus sat at the center of the head table. 'Black, Phineas' Old Man Dippet had called. The headmaster had sat up in his chair and watched as his son, the spitting image of himself, walked up to the stool and sit as the Sorting Hat was placed on his head. Phineas had his eyes scrunched as he sat on the stool, as if he was about to cry. "RAVENCLAW!" the Hat yelled. Phineas's eyes opened slowly and he trudged to the Ravenclaw table. The students there did not clap, fearing punishment from their Headmaster. Phineas Nigellus did not leave his office for two whole days.

During the Christmas holidays of Phineas's last year of Hogwarts (and Phineas Nigellus's last Christmas as headmaster), Phineas Nigellus and his second oldest son, Sirius were having a heated conversation about whether Elves were superior to Muggles. The conversation ended in laughter and agreement that they were both horrible. Phineas couldn't hold his tongue anymore and after an even more heated argument, Phineas Disapparated. Phineas Nigellus burned all of his son's possessions and burned his face off of the tapestry, just as his mother had did his sister's.

 **September 1, 1928**

Had you not been a Black, you would not have known Marius Black existed. In fact, some of the Blacks who were farther away from the mainline didn't even know he existed. Violetta Black made sure of the fact. It became increasingly unlikely that Marius would develop any amount of magic at all. Marius was born sickly, in fact, he did not cry when he was born. He was fair haired and pale and his eyes were blue. He was like a washed out version of what most Blacks looked like. He didn't walk until he was three and then he was very slow to run. So Violetta wasn't surprised when the summer of Marius's eleventh year came without a letter from Hogwarts. Pollux, Marius's older brother, went off to his second year of Hogwarts without his younger brother in tow as he was supposed to.

Violetta couldn't be angry, so she cried. She felt it was her fault she had given birth to an invalid, a handicap, and a fungus on the Black family tree and the Bulstrode tree too. Her mother hadn't let her forget that one. Neither had Cygnus's father, Phineas. She drank herself into a stupor after she dropped Pollux off at King's Cross.

She sat in a chair across from the tapestry, looking at the two burn marks already on the tree. Cygnus had refused to do it. He'd already cut the boy off, hadn't spoken to him in weeks. She stood and walked rather slowly to the wall. She stared at her wand as she walked, thinking about what she was about to do. And she did it.

 **July 1, 1934**

She had run off with that red haired weasel already. She had just graduated from Hogwarts two days before and she hadn't even come home. She threatened to leave that previous Christmas and Arcturus had not believed her, nor had he a reason to. Cedrella had nowhere to go, no one to turn to. She was only unhappy because he wouldn't allow her to see the Weasley boy and why would he? The Weasley's had once been a respectable family but as far back as Arcturus could remember, they had been no more than Mudbloods. They sympathized with Muggles and that Tobias Weasley had worked at the Ministry as the head of the new Muggles Relations division. His oldest son, Ronald, had worked as a House Elf liberator and they had gone downhill from there.

So what was Arcturus supposed to do when she came home to tell them that she had been proposed to on the side of Black Lake by no other than Septimus Weasley? She was so proud and strong and joyous about the engagement, she had announced it at 12 Grimmauld Place before aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Arcturus was startled that after their argument, she had walked with purpose into the parlor and blasted her own name off of the tree. She turned to face her family who had gathered in the parlor. She said some unpleasant words to her father and kissed her cousin Marius on the cheek. She then walked out of the house, never to be seen by her parents again.

 **July 24, 1970**

Druella had just dueled her second youngest daughter. She was furious, but she kept her composure as she walked into her bedroom. Cygnus was on the bed reading the Prophet and he looked up to ask her how it went, but she was already sitting at the ancient desk that held an inkwell and a book of stationary. She wrote one simple sentence on the paper:

 _Dear Walburga,_

 _Please strike Andromeda from the tapestry, as I know you wouldn't mind cutting away the diseased parts of it._

 _Thank you,_

 _Druella Rosier Black_

* * *

 **The last section will have its very own chapter in "365 Days", my ongoing word-of-the-day prompted story. We have a while to go before we get to July though, so enjoy!**


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